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If you look at her voting record shes done nothing but fuck shit up like this TSA stuff, but keeps getting reelected despite being the cause of the troubles of her voter base. Shes been serving since '95 so around 17 years.

Of course, neither are corporations, which is why you have workers in the US being turned into wage slaves ruled by fear of at-will employment, NDAs, non-compete clauses, and other strict rules. Most people who get power want nothing but more of it; whether they're public or private sector makes little difference.

Scandinavian here, you have a scewed and rose-tinted view of what it's like here. Our airports are just the same, we have the equivalent to TSA. Last time I flew I had to go through another security check upon landing, that was fun after a long flight and having been through several scans and checks at the airport we departed from. Are they afraid I'll try to take a bomb out of the airport?

They passed a bill a while ago that will require ISPs to record and store everything I browse on the internet, who I send email to, and where my cell phone is, for six months. It is scheduled to spring into action 1. january 2013. Of course, criminals and tech-savy people will just use a proxy and what they'll end up storing is all the information about law-abiding citizens, but they swear they won't look at it. Totally. Pinky promise. Just like they promised to destroy all DNA samples from 100-odd men after a rape investigation but ended up keeping the samples just in case.

Here is my experience flying from the USA to Stockholm. After landing I head to the customs gate where the guy asks me why I have come. I get my passport stamped. Behind the customs gate is the international baggage claim. After I get my bag I walked out the airport. I was never checked or scanned.

Upon leaving Stockholm to go back tot he USA I passed through a carry on baggage scanner and a metal detector, which took about 2minutes considering there was only like 5 people in line.

TSA PDF outlining the role out of body scanner machines in other places than just airports a year before they were deployed in airports. Looks like they had a long term plan and someone is going to be making a shit load of money.

Canadian airports do a fair bit of their own security stupidity. I haven't flown to the US since long before 2001, admittedly, but I can't imagine us being that far behind the US in terms of how invasive and annoying it was just flying domestically in Canada.

Hilariously, in a group of west indians, muslims and asians me (the big white guy) is always the one who has his luggage torn apart by Canadian customs on the way back into the country. I love it when they pull out random things and accuse me of buying them in the US just because they have a "made in US" sticker despite the objects being noticeably old. Never heard of imports?

I've run into the same thing. I'm the big white guy that always gets pulled aside for "additional screening". I figured it was because they thought I was the least likely to have something that I wasn't supposed to have, so it would be the least amount of work for them.

Either that or they are required to search a certain percentage of white travelers so they can show statistics and say "See, we search everybody, not just brown people!"

Get used to it. The TSA is just one part of a coordinated, bi-partisan government-wide campaign to indoctrinate Americans to a totalitarian police-state. If American citizens think the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, Internet control laws, wiretappings, border fence, police brutality, the NSA national spy center... are all just a "coincidence" then they have another thing coming. The American regime is converting the country into an authoritarian state, and Americans are being taught every day to submit to this authority and be happy living in a free country.

The thing I like is that the border fence, and TSA and immigration laws are just modern day versions of the original passport system that was to control whether people were allowed to move in or out of a town, city or even from village to village. Literally passport was permission to pass through the portcullis.

I don't understand why we're going from freedom, where you could move freely between almost any country unhindered, work freely and given sufficient time become a naturalized citizen. Now you need at least a passport, but probably a visa. You'll need a work visa to legally work in the country and if you want to become a citizen it'll likely take 5 years and you'll be required to take tests and (depending on where you are) go in front of a judge for it to be legal.

It seems like these restrictions are always way more harmful to the country than they are ever beneficial.

It is coming. The question is whether or not it's going to be the environment going to shit, or if the proletariat makes a grab for control while we still have a chance to get on proverbial life boats.

It's not a coordinated bi-partisan attack. It's a combination of IT becoming available to make these things possible, attacks making people demand the government take action to eliminate all threats, government that believes tracking people is the only way to address these demands.

This is an example of a superorganism, not a conspiracy. So unless you have evidence of conspiracy please spare us this nonsense.

I have been going through upwards of 20-30 roadblocks per year on NYS Rte 11 for years now in northern NY. Not from the TSA, but from the Border Patrol. The border, last I checked, is a good hours drive from where I live. I got pulled into secondary inspection ON A MOTORCYCLE because the guy asked to see my license, which was in my wallet under my seat (pretty standard for any motorcycle rider) and I told him I wasn't going to get off the bike just so he could verify for the SECOND time today that I was an American. It's fucking ridiculous.

We all know the TSA is idiotic, if you need more proof just think about this. I'm an airline pilot, and even when I was in my uniform with all required ID badges, I've still had the TSA take my fingernail clippers.

My father in law was an airline pilot for a few decades, and he had his car keys confiscated (on his way to the plane he was going to be flying) because the keys were too long. He asked the agent: "Do you really think I'm going to hijack my own airplane with my car keys?"

Astounding how little latitude they appear to have, or brains to make use of it if they were granted it...

A few years ago I had some nail clippers taken away from me (the small kind) at a TSA checkpoint. I asked why; the agent told me it was a potential threat because of the folding 'blade'. You know the one: you use it to dig out dirt from under your fingernails; it has no edge and is about as dangerous as a slice of buttered toast.

Resisting the temptation to back-sass, I instead [hopefully] made my point by giving them a big fake smile and slowly holding out the tiny nailclippers in my clenched fist. I'm 6'3, 270lb and fairly broad of shoulder, so I'm pretty sure that threatening someone with a punch would be more effective than threatening someone with the 1" edgeless 'blade' on some nailclippers. Having said that, I'm not sure that anyone would be rendered more threatening by wielding a pair of nail-clippers. If someone charged at me with one, I imagine I'd feel a mixture of confusion, amusement and pity...

About a half a year back I was coming back from a trip to St. Thomas. At the airport there was this tiny old lady who had found some nice rocks on a beach, and had no checked luggage. They were probably 1-pound (.5 kg) and smaller, no sharp edges, etc.

Anyway, right in front of her is me, carrying a belt, keys, a couple of heavy cameras/camera objects, definitely heavier than the rocks, and right behind her is this huuuge like 300 pound - not fat, just BIG muscular guy - with hands the size of boulders.

Of course, the TSA agent looks at the little old lady (seriously, like 70 years old, had trouble walking and shit) and says "You know ma'am, I shouldn't let you on to this place with those rocks. You could throw them at someone and kill them. I could probably kill 5 people with these rocks you have here before anyone subdues me."

I look at that old lady and I wish I had just told the guy "Dude, she can't even pick her arm to throw a foosball overhand. You think she could throw a 1-pound rock fast enough to kill anyone? Not to mention this 300 pound Tongan fellow sitting right behind her who could probably punch a hole in the plane with his bare hands. You think he should get on to the plane with those things? Those are more of a threat than her."

I didn't, but you could tell the Tongan guy was thinking it as well because he looks at me with this "Fucking really?" face as he looks at his hands and then the rocks and back at me.

TSA agent eventually let her off with a "warning" to never do it again and all that bullshit.

I've accidentally brought my 6" utility knife on a plane from SFO to Heth without issue - Not like it would have been a big deal if they took it, but still I've been able to bring clippers with me on my carry on as well as bottled water in my carry on.

TSA:0 Me:4

P.S. I have YET to be patted down (I fly 10+ times a year). I'm 32yr Off-white Spaniard and what is funny, I've been able to walk on by while some 70+ elder white male gets pulled out of line and frisked lol. He was none to happy either.

That happened to my dad! He was furious. His reasoning was that, as a pilot, he spends his time in the cock-pit, where they have a 4 foot fire ax. The last thing he would need to hijack a plane would be nail clippers.

I got to see my dad actually use that line once. We were going out of IAH to Hawaii. He had a few day layover so I tagged along. In full uniform with ID and everything they search his bag and pull out his nail clippers and a little inch long eyeglass screw driver. His response"You do understand that once I get in the cockpit I'll have a fireaxe at my disposal." That didn't faze them. "What am I talking about, I'm the pilot. I wouldn't need a damn axe." The looks on their faces then was hilarious, a mixture of confusion and "what-the-fuck-did-he-just-say". Needless to say, as next in line, I was "randomly" selected for screening and almost strip searched.

Read an article a few years ago and a pilot was protesting beings searched and asked the TSA agent why he was being searched. The Agent said, "we want to make sure you don't have any object that would enable you to take over the plane. The pilot replied...that's my job. I take over the plane every time I fly.
Searching the pilots makes no sense to me. If the pilot decides to take down a plane, its going down.

I think you are right.. it is unfortunate. If Romney came out with it and said we should cut the TSA since they haven't produced results in stopping a single terrorist attack people would applaud the common sense financial wisdom. If Obama did it they would say he is weak on defense.

Dem janet napolitano is the head of homeland security and is largely responsible for the tsa. When she was governor of Arizona she had revenue cameras put on the freeways. When she left they ripped them out. Both sides are guilty.

Well, making people feel safe is a 'symptom' if you will. They're making people feel safe (rather than making people safe) in an effort to propagate their bureaucratic empire and thus give themselves more power and more money. Look at who's profiting in the millions (billions?) on the backscatter machines, and so on.

I'm shocked. This goes completely against what I hear most people say, on both the internet/blogosphere and in real life, not to mention the times I've actually been in the airport. Then again, I'm not Gallup.

ABC News contacted the TSA which said, "In our initial review, we concluded that this individual was screened in accordance with standard procedures."

For god sakes, can we get someone appointed to cross-check the TSA, that ISN'T THE TSA?! Why is this still being allowed? What the hell is it going to take to come down on this?

I don't mind having to go through security to keep our airways safer. I think that's absolutely fair. What I DO mind is the TSA waving their "Do what I want and get away with it" badge in people's faces and being absolutely disrespectful.

Bullshit. I fly very often, and have been harassed on multiple occasions for no good reasons. I mean, even for silly little things, they start to cop a 'tude with you. Sometimes I feel like they're intentionally fucking with you. Like "SIR. WALK ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ROPED LINE TOWARDS US"

Then when I finally get up to the TSA agents: "SIR. WHY DID YOU WALK AROUND THE ROPED LINE?"

are you fucking serious or did you make that up? geez, these TSA idiots have GOT to calm down. it blows my mind that many of them are younger than me, too, and speak to me like they have some authority over me. i mean, look, if someone wanted to blow up an airport, they'd easily have enough shit on them to even do it from the entrance. not to mention, if you really did encounter a terrorist with a bomb on him, chances are he'd detonate the minute TSA treated him this way. these children they give badges to do NOT THINK before they speak.

ugh, i get so aggro.

in my last TSA encounter, this woman "had" to touch my butt after they got full nudes from the x-ray scanner. Ummmmm, pretty sure they were trying to see if my butt was real. Yes, it's real as fuck and it comes from many many many years of ballet. and then, to make it worse, she then says that because SHE touched my butt, that MY hands needed to be swabbed. i made a joke about this and she laughed, "so, let me get this right, YOU touched MY BUTT, shouldn't YOUR hands be swabbed after touching butts?"

wow, my username is hella relevant at this moment. that was not planned.

oh lord, well, I'm sorry that happened to you. they really DO need to calm down and get their shit together. i can't believe it's the 11th anniversary of 9/11 and things have gotten worse. I mean, the initial TSA was fine, it seems to have worked, but I feel like EVERY YEAR they do something a little more bonkers and horrible. for me the last straw was that machine they make us go through. I've read some horrible things about it too, girl. like someone woman in dallas that was forced to go through over and over so that security could keep checking her out. the worst part is: TSA NEVER admits to wrong-doing. They'll back-up all these jerks! I think that's what's most upsetting. At least fess up when you know you screwed up.

I am a white woman who does not dress like a thug and travels by plane frequently for business; I dress respectably and do not transport odd or suspicious items in my carry ons, and yet it is not infrequent that I am treated disrespectfully and checked or my bags riffled through, usually on the pretense of my travel chess set "appearing to be drugs" or having a light jacket with me that is "too loose fitting." With respect, I beg to differ. The TSA asserts its heavyhanded brand of authority on whims and as it chooses.

I'm a white male in my mid 20s,athletic build and always dress nice when I fly. Despite that I am always sent to the body scanner and always refuse, opting for a pat down. I've got a masters in molecular medicine and every TSA agent I've ever spoken to about why I opt out has been genuinely interested in the facts I give them as to why those scanners are so potentially dangerous.

I won't speak for dongsy, but I have an issue because as I understand it the "safe dosage" of radiation they always cite is based on that amount of radiation across your entire body. But the scanners only apply that radiation to the first millimeter of your skin before bouncing back (hence the "nude" image as opposed to a skeleton). So the dosage of radiation across just your skin is higher than the one being used.

On a non-medical note: 4th Amendment. If physical strip-searches were standard security for flying, people would be up in arms. But because they can conduct the same search in a highly convenient manner, people are fine with it.

I'm respectful and always wear a buttoned shirt tucked into slacks when I fly, but since I look possibly middle-eastern (I'm not) I got "randomly selected" to have my bag riffled through whenever I flew alone between ages 17-22. Oh, and I was pulled off a plane for suspicious activity once.

I went through Boston Logan on Sunday night. The TSA guy was walking the line with TINY (1 quart) zip lock bags demanding that its only 1 bag per person, all liquids must fit in the bag, if it doesn't; throw it away, check your bag or don't fly. When I showed him that I had a small amount of 3oz toiletries already in a plastic bag (1 gallon), he made me transfer them anyway saying it doesn't matter if I fly all the time with the plastic bag I had, other airports are just lazy, but not Boston. He held up the entire line to make everyone repack and throw away toiletries. I have been on 8 flights in the last year and used the same plastic bag the entire time; but not in boston! no sir.

I don't really know what else I can add to the views here, but I just want to express my feelings, nevertheless.

I grew up in Communist Hungary during the '80s, in a de facto police state. Yet I really only started to hate the police and any sort of authority when I spent 8 years in the US.

This should not happen in "the Free World", but the fact that it does shows that the Land of the Free is not free at all. Huxley comes to mind; it became a cliche, but a true cliche. And I don't know where to turn. I think I can now to accept the fact that liberty and freedom is bullshit; you never be reasonably free. And if you do accept that, then comes the next realization: China, Brazil, even Russia is a better place to live if you're in the middle class. If you play by the rules, you're fine. And this blows my mind.

And notice their power has increased with support from both political parties. And it’s not just the TSA, it’s private prisons, warrantless wiretaps, and whole landslide of other violations of our rights. And it is just going to get to worse unless we realized as

Malcolm X said over 40 years ago "We have been had,hoodwinked,bamboozled." Sad to say it has continued today. 3% of the population earn 97% of the wealth,while the other 97% of the population fight for the remainding 3% " Hostile tribes fighting over scarce benefits and spoils" thats how former prime minister P.J.Patterson described it. Question: Isnt the same God who made the 3 % at the top made the other 97% at the bottom? Did he gave those at the top more brain cells? Or were we created equally? Sadly, in the end the Civil Rights movement didn’t end with blacks gaining rights to be being equal to whites but with whites losing rights to be equal with blacks.

"Look at yourselves. Some of you teenagers, students. How do you think I feel and I belong to a generation ahead of you - how do you think I feel to have to tell you, 'We, my generation, sat around like a knot on a wall while the whole world was fighting for its hum an rights - and you've got to be born into a society where you still have that same fight.' What did we do, who preceded you ? I'll tell you what we did. Nothing. And don't you make the same mistake we made...."

Not it's not, the TSA is a prime example of what happens when large corporations have influence in government policies. What you are saying is a red-herring. Look at all the no-bid contracts involved. When Republicans "grow" government, follow the money. We need to stop acting like the only issues here are privacy breaches.

You've a Government controlled by a small number of incredibly wealthy and powerful individuals, a government who put all their effort into two things:

Protecting the wealthy elite, both physically and financially

&

Keeping US citizens in line, keeping the machine running to ensure they don't upset those aforementioned elite.

You've a military, built by the pockets of the tax payer and on loans that you the tax payer will pay back, as will your children, and their children, who have been shown to be used to protect and further the interests of those elite. They will be used to invade countries for the control of valuable resources, at a cost to the taxpayers pocket and the lives of young Americans, and they will be used to retain social control in the event of a catastrophe at home. Not help those affected, control those affected (see "looters" being shot for taking damaged items from heavily damaged stores after Katrina, for instance).

Your government has created a police force to oppress you on your streets, an agency of incompetent and aggressive idiots in your airports, security agencies to monitor every little thing you say and every little thing you do on your phone, online and elsewhere and more.

They create things like the Patriot Act to "protect you" from the invisible boogeymen on the one hand, but taking ever more of your rights with the other.

Then, you're force fed nationalist propaganda every where you go, from morning to night, to a point where the attitude from America these days is one of "if you're not explicitly with us, you're against us".

You're told to believe that what is being done, the constant monitoring and control, is good for you and America and that those who say otherwise are anti-American communists.

And the worst/best part is...it's working! Americans are more hate filled and terrified of what lies in the dark than ever before and your Government, and the elite behind it, have basically free reign to do what they like to you.

Think of what that military expenditure COULD have gotten - wider access to better healthcare and wider access to better education, the very things that enrich and in some way equalize society. Instead, you've a military and other forces they're ready to use against you, extremely expensive colleges that are inaccessible to the majority, inaccessible and unacceptable health care and more.

And yet, you're still convinced that it's the best nation in the world. I wish the US would wake up and see what it's doing to itself, I really do, but I fear it's too far gone now. The US Government and the elite have such a tight grip of control that even if some small uprising did try to bring about change, it would be literally destroyed by the military paid for by the taxpayer.

I'm just glad that Europe has stalled in its bid to copy the US and is turning another direction. We're protecting the elite, at a huge cost, but at least we've still the tools to enrich and protect society.

I love all the comments about the TSA giving you shit for giving them 'attitude'. I'm sure these are the same people that give the kid at McDonald's 'attitude' too ... instead of being delayed for their flight they just get spit in their burger.

Personally I've been delayed many times for refusing to go through a body scanner. I wait my 5, sometimes 10 minutes, guy pats me down and then I leave and get on my flight. Don't get mad at the employees, get mad at the government for forcing you through this process.

Somewhere within the TSA there are some very frustrated PR agents who have to hear about all this crap their staff do, and try craft the "Yes, we have investigated the agent who closed his eyes and licked his lips while fondling a child's genitals - and have found that it was entirely conducted according to established procedures" while smacking their foreheads at having to acknowledge and whitewash yet another PR nightmare.

I was heading back from Boston to DC with my brother. We wait in line for over an hour. One single security point, with a bunch others closed for no reason. I count 3 different TSA workers standing around talking, not doing a damn thing. One is even yelling at people to stack the trays when they're done with them (which later I did not out of mini protest.)

I proceed through the metal detector. No problems. My brother goes through. No problems. Then we hear the lewd Bostonian accent from a woman sitting on her great big behind telling us we have liquids in on of our bags.

My brother and I look at each other. We went over this. We know what we can and can't bring on. I ask her what it looks like, she describes it as a "container of liquid." :|

I tell her flat out, "No, I have no liquid in my bag." "YES YOU DO" she screams back. At this point, the 3 knuckle heads that weren't doing anything now have our attention, finally some entertainment for them! We're now holding the line up.

After 3 minutes or so of us saying "No, we don't" and her just saying "YES YOU DO" she tells us "Ok, I'll let you go on THIS time, but the next person who has liquid isn't getting on."

What. The. Fuck.

Dumb fat pig of a woman LIES about us having liquid because she's so bored with her shit job that pays great. When called out on it, she acts like she has the ability to decide who does and doesn't get on the plane with items RESTRICTED, as if she's some grand queen of the TSA making these big policy decisions.

You know, its crap like this that makes me wonder when we will have our own "V". How long till until someone has had enough, and some Patriot labeled terrorist starts blowing shit up.

Read the following quote and see how close it is to the truth.

"Cruelty and injustice...intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance, coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told...if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War. Terror. Disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you and in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He promised you order. He promised you peace. And all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."

Keep in mind that most Americans are raised in Christian and quasi-Christian households, and have been taught from birth that it takes one great leader to bring them out of darkness (Isaiah, Moses, Christ, Washington, Ghandi, MLK, etc. all come to mind). At no point in any of our history do we acknowledge the positive power of a large group of likeminded people to get things changed when it comes to political power. Therefore, we sit and wait for our next great leader to solve our problems and tell us what to do.

Think about this: we are occupying and have committed war crimes in several areas around the world (example: Iraq), and yet, what do you think about when you hear about American troops in Iraq? You wish them well, you hope they come back safe, you side against the terrorists ("insurgents" if youre nice).

If the media can convince you that the occupier is the good guy and the people resisting the invasion are the bad guys, you can imagine what else they can convince you.

Timothy Mcveigh for example? The government terrorized Waco, and when Timothy retaliated they killed him too.

Julian Assange? Miraculously, he got implicated in a sex scandal. Lots of Redditors gloated and castigated him for getting involved with that chick (if he really did).

The US government is the evil world government you see in dystopian novels and movies. Except instead of making everyone afraid to death of their thugs, they've instilled in people to revere and respect the military and police. Oh, and fear them too. When that kid was tortured in public ("don't taser me bro!") and no one lifted a finger, that was one of the clearest signs that the population has completely surrendered to the government's terrorism.

9/11 has allowed the government and agencies related/affiliated, to do things that they have always wanted to,but was never able to before. So many right given up and it seems out of hands at this point.